Poke-Phobia
by Arrow Riddari
Summary: Being a trainer is never easy, especially if you are terrified of Pokemon. Yet, what do you have to do if you need to get money to pay off debt left by your dad, so you don't become homeless? This is the story of my life [story told in 3rd person, as an experiment, as I haven't written in a while. Testing my writing skill]. Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokemon. Please give feedback.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Pokemon trainers start at ten, but for this story, this special one starts at fifteen. Also, shipping choices will be revealed in chapter 2 or later. I will be featuring semi-graphical violent scenes in some parts, but not any other kind of scenes. If a character has a baby or something, there will not be any scenes of the original period of time the conception happened. It will just skip to the pregnancy period, which will be semi-graphic, and then a semi-graphic birth. This story is T primarily for language and some violence. This story is an experiment, as I have not written in forever. I had severe Writer's Block. I am willing to write again. Please Read and Review for the feedback. If there is no feedback, at least answer the riddle or questions in the bottom.**

_A little boy was off to play in front of a large grove of trees on the outskirts of town, while his mother was picking berries a little distance away. The little boy loved Pokemon, wanting to become a trainer like most other boys his age. He simply adored and marveled at the creatures that possessed so much raw power in their bodies. The little boy, at age five, wanted to become the Champion of the Kanto region, and later, the other regions, to become a Pokemon Master. Often, most other students at his preschool said that he couldn't make it, as the little boy was a bad test taker and had low attention span, bordering on ADHD. But, the little boy believed he could become Champion, just like how Lance, the Dragon Master, was the current Champion of Kanto. And later, beat all the other leagues and catch every single Pokemon there is… To become a Pokemon Master._

_The little boy saw a little purple mouse with large buck teeth running back to the deeper side of the woods with a small blue berry in its mouth. The boy, noticing that his mother wasn't watching him, abandoned the crayons and coloring book he was using to amuse himself, followed the little mouse into a different clearing, which headed for Viridian Forest. He smiled to himself, wanting to play with the purple mouse and hoping that it could become his friend._

_The mother had noticed almost immediately that her son was not around. The familiar chatter of her five year old baby was not heard from her, and she began to panic, searching around the outskirts of the grove of trees that was slightly outside of Pallet Town. She kept calling her son's name, fearing that he had gone off somewhere dangerous, and was just praying that he was hiding in the trees from her._

_The little boy followed the mouse to a field, until the light of the sun started to fade. He looked around at the evening sky and looked behind him, not being able to see his mother through the tall grass that was higher than him. The little mouse had run off as well, and the little boy had now realized that he was lost. He was about to start crying, when he heard a loud piercing cry of "Rooow!" overhead._

_A large flock of twenty or so birds with a brown plumage was flying overhead in a V formation. The flock all had red wings and crooked beaks. Their chests were beige with two thin stripes and they had a set of wicked talons on their legs. They had three brown tail feathers and, though the boy couldn't see them, the backs of the little bird Pokemon were black._

_The little boy looked up at them and the leader of the flock looked down at him. All at once, the staring contest stopped as the leader cried, "SPEAROW!" and the entire flock began dive bombing the boy. The boy screamed and tried to run, crying now for his mommy. The crooked, yet sharp beaks of the birds met the boy's exposed flesh and caused him to bleed. The birds ripped his clothing while attacking him, as the little boy screamed and cried. He curled into a ball, trying to protect his reddish-brown eyes with his tiny fair, now bloody hands. Through the small crack of his fingers, he could see the small purple mouse that he followed before hiding from the flock, instead of helping him._

_Meanwhile, the mother could hear the sounds of her baby's screams as she ran towards the source. She had already called the father of the boy with her Poke-phone [predecessor of a PokeNav and Pokegear], and said father was now with her, with his Charizard. The two were on the large fire lizard, searching for the boy through the air. They spotted the Spearow flock hurting the boy and the man ordered his Charizard to let loose a Flamethrower close to the birds. The birds, seeing the flames and the powerful fire lizard, flew off, leaving an unconscious five year old in the field._

_The father and mother picked up the boy and immediately took him to the local doctor. The doctor managed to save the boy from the brink of death, and the boy recuperated fully. The parents were overjoyed and took their son home. However, they never saw one lasting effect… Their son had turned out afraid of Pokemon…_

**...**

Ash Ketchum woke up, as today was his fifteenth birthday. It had been ten years from the incident with the Spearow and eight years after his father vanished off the face of the earth. His father left a lot of loans and debt for them, from gambling with other trainers at the Celadon casino from when the man was a teen. Thanks to his dad leaving, his mom had to beg for keeping the house. If it hadn't been for Professor Oak, who viewed Delia as a daughter, as she was best friends with his son, Blue Oak, the family of two would have been kicked out on the streets.

Ash showered in the cold water and quickly put on a navy blue and white vest, with a black shirt inside, and a set of black tight pants. He also had a brown leather belt on his waist to secure his pants and navy blue running shoes. The only thing not complementing his blue and black theme was the red and white hat that he had for years. Ash traced the thin scars littered over his hands from the Spearow incident.

"Mom, what's for breakfast," Ash said. Delia Ketchum smiled at her only child as she poured some milk and put some of the previous night's leftovers on a plate. She worked at a small restaurant for enough pay to pay off the bills and leftovers to take home for her growing son and herself. The manager of the restaurant used to be in a similar situation as Delia's, until the woman married again and her new husband helped finance her life, so the woman often sympathized with Delia and gave her extra tip money anonymously and let the single mother take the food home.

"Thanks Mom," Ash said, eating eagerly. Delia sighed, watching her son practically inhale the food, but noticing how he left half of the food for her. She realized that he had, once again, figured out that his mother gave up her portion of the meal for him, and he was obviously going to stop her from doing so.

"Sweetie, eat the rest," she ordered.

"No Mom," Ash said, looking at his mother and pushing the plate of food to her. Delia sighed again.

"Dear, you are a growing boy and-," she was cut off.

"Mom, we both need to eat. You need to conserve your strength for working today and I need to help you by doing the paper route and by helping around town." It was a daily thing that Ash would ride his bike and deliver newspapers to the houses in Pallet while getting small amounts of money for them. Mostly, everyone was nice to the friendly teen and would often have Ash come in and fix their roofs, mow their lawns, and do other handy work for pay.

"About that Ashie…" his mother said, biting her lower lip. Ash's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Well, it has been found recently that your father even owed more money than we initially assumed. He had actually gambled at other times of his life, not just his teen years. I never knew because he would go out very late at night and do so. We have now twice the amount we need to pay off…" his mother said, with her shoulders slumping dejectedly. Ash's eyes widened at the amount on the papers. Seriously, was that many zeroes even possible?

"What will we do?" Ash asked, looking very worried. They may actually have to sell the house now, which they didn't have to do before, luckily.

"Ash, I am so sorry to ask you of this… But you need to take up Pokemon training," Delia said.

"WHAT?! BUT MOM-?!" Ash exclaimed, his eyes wide.

"Dear, listen to me. We will need to sell the house if you do not do this. I am too old now and have to stay here and manage the bills and the house. As a minor, I highly doubt you can do that. Pokemon training will give us the money we need, as you get prize money from every trainer you defeat. The higher the status of your trainer rank, the more you get. By defeating gyms, you get higher in rank. This will be the best way to make enough money to pay back the debts dear."

"But, Mom, I hate Pokemon," Ash said, glaring a bit at this idea, but still seeing sense.

"Dear, I know you do. At least go to the fourth gym. By then, you should make 1000 Poke-dollars a battle. If you do 100 battles, we should have 1,000,000 Poke-dollars, which is enough, without the interest. I can handle the house's finances and the interest payment while you are gone."

"But-" Ash tried to protest.

"Please, Ash, just do it for me. For us as a family," Delia begged.

"Fine. On the condition that you never let that bastard of a father into this house again and that you make sure to kick him in the balls for me so he cannot have any more kids to place into this situation," Ash said, giving in.

"I agree to that condition, but you are getting your mouth washed off with soap for that kind of language, young man," Delia said, smiling.

Ash grimaced and ran off, heading to the Professor's lab for his first Pokemon.

**Anyways, couple of questions:**

**1. How do you like the beginning so far, oh fellow readers?**

**2. Who should Ash possibly be paired with in the list below and why? Now, I just want other's opinion. I may or may not follow it. I am quite partial to Altoshipping, provided that Ash gets turned into a Latios/ gets Pokemon powers/ gets to be a Pokemorph OR if Latias becomes a human. I also like Pokeshipping at times, so long as it is done right. Here is the list:**

**-Pokeshipping [Ash and Misty]**

**-Altochipping [Ash and Latias]**

**-Advanceshipping [Ash and May]**

**-Rayshipping [Ash and Cynthia, provided that she is younger]**

**3. Other possible shipping ideas?**

**-Sacroshipping [Prof. Oak and Prof. Juniper]**

**-Mizukishipping [Cyrus and Cynthia, they look cute together until Cyrus goes all evil]**

**-Rocketshipping [James and Jessie]**

**-Diamondshipping [Giovanni and Delia, it would explain some stuff. Giovanni ditches his wife and kid to take over the world. He actually used the money to finance his criminal organization, known as Team Rocket]**

**-Contestshipping [Drew and May]**

...

**Here is the riddle of the chapter...**

**I am a Pokemon,**

**Look at me.**

**Flying high with with my flock,**

**Oh so happily.**

**We often group together,**

**As a happy family.**

**My evolved form is arrogant and strong,**

**Just like me.**

**Brown and red,**

**Those are my hues,**

**If you catch and subdue me,**

**I will submit to you.**

**But, come in to my territory,**

**You will cry.**

**I will dive bomb you with my beak,**

**What Pokemon am I?**

**...**

**Read and review everyone :).**


	2. Chapter 2

Ash walked reluctantly to Oak's lab, taking slow steps all the way. His mother had already packed his bag from the night before and he groaned, as that made his journey come around even faster. He trekked along the dirt path that led from his house to Oak's laboratory. Overhead, several Pidgeys flew, but he ignored them and they ignored him. So long as the Pokemon wasn't five feet away from him or touching him, he was fine with them minding their own business and coexisting in harmony with him.

And that seemed to the problem… While he didn't like touching Pokemon and being near them within the limits of five feet, Pokemon seemed to be _very _attracted to him for some reason. They loved him and often followed him. This event was followed by much screaming, hyperventilation, and even fainting on Ash's part. Still, Ash trekked on, albeit very unwillingly.

After thirty minutes of walking, Ash stood in front of Oak's lab, with the fields of wild Pokemon behind it. Ash was lucky, he had yet to have a Pokemon come near him so far.

"Wow, Ashy-boy, I never expected you to ever come in here alone without screaming for your mommy like some pathetic baby," a haughty voice called. Ash steeled his face to an impassive look, immediately recognizing that face. He looked up and saw a spikey haired brunette with dark viridian eyes that looked black in the sun. The brunette had on a navy blue, long sleeved shirt and a set of black pants. He also wore a black leather vest on top and around his waist, had a spiked belt, with six red and white balls on it. He wore a necklace with a half of a Poke-ball on it. A blue shelled Pokemon stood on the fifteen year old boy's shoulder.

"Watch it, Gare-bear," Ash said, his face looking unaffected, while his eyes betrayed the slight anger and irritation he was feeling.

"Oh, and what can you do to me, Ashy? All I have to do is send out my Pokemon and you will go screaming and crying back to your mommy like the pathetic baby you are. Help, Mommy that Pokemon is scawwy!" Gary taunted. Ash glared at him.

"Shut up," Ash said, shoving Gary on the floor. Squirtle, the Pokemon Gary had on his shoulder, got on the floor on its two hind legs and growled low at Ash, while baring its teeth. Ash winced as he saw the Squirtle and moved back into the trees. Squirtle, noticing the foreign human was scared, tilted its head to the side curiously and came up to sniff Ash, wondering what was scaring him. Ash began breathing heavily, his chest constricting as his vision turned blurry. The turtle advanced further, not noticing that it was the source of the human's anxiety attack. Ash panicked more, finding it very hard to breath. The world felt like it was suffocating itself on him and his vision became worse. As the Squirtle came right next to him, he fell backwards, fainting on the floor in front of his rival.

…

Ash woke up on a bed with Professor Oak standing over him. The room came into focus as he saw the elderly man in front of him. The professor smiled gently and Ash got to a sitting position, noticing that Gary was not there. The Professor handed Ash some water and, after the boy had finished drinking, allowed the boy to rest.

After two housr of resting, Ash got up, figuring that he could walk now. His anxiety attack had long gone and he wanted to get something to eat. Professor Oak came into the room, holding a plate with sandwiches. Ash thanked the professor and silently ate his sandwich.

"Professor, I was wondering if you had any Pokemon available. I want to become a trainer," Ash said, after finishing his sandwich and wiping his mouth.

"What brings this on, Ash Ketchum?" Professor Oak asked.

"I figured that I could try to lose my fear of Pokemon," Ash said, shrugging.

"Does this have to do with the money that you need to pay off?" Professor Oak asked. The boy in front of him shrugged, but the guilty expression in his eyes told the elderly man everything he needed to know.

Professor Oak sighed and motioned for Ash to follow him. They walked to the room where trainers typically get their starter Pokemon and Ash looked around the room he would be meeting his starter in. Ever since the Spearow had set up territory outside of Pallet Town, they had been attacking beginning trainers to protect their territory. Many younger ten year old trainers had been targets of the Spearow and a few came close to being as injured as Ash was. Because of this, the new trainers' age limit had been pushed back to 15 and trainers were given emergency Potions to go through to get to Viridian City. Professor Oak was the one responsible for giving new trainers Pokemon still. Just like how he will do for Ash.

"Normally, I would not allow you to get a Pokemon just for using it to make money by battling. However, I have known you as a child and I know, that even you despise Pokemon and are terrified of them, you still do not view them as tools of power and respect them as sentient beings that coexist with humans. For that reason, I am willing to give you a Pokemon," the Professor said, pulling out a black ball that had a gold band around the middle, with a gold button. It had a set of rings on the top and bottom half that were both red. There was a ring of gold surrounding the ring of red as well.

"Ash, this Pokemon was abandoned by its former trainer, since it initially did not know any attacking moves. It cannot hurt you because of this. I had found it wandering my fields in the back, malnourished and very injured. I had placed it in a Luxury Ball and healed it, but it hates me and would only eat when I was not around. The Pokemon is hostile to me, but I think you can be the one to show that humans have a good side. And, this Pokemon can teach you about the Pokemon's good side as well," the elderly man said, handing the Luxury Ball to Ash. Ash twirled the ball around in his hands experimentally, looking at the black sheen on it that reflected the light.

"Well, throw out the Pokemon," Oak said. Ash glared slightly and threw the Poke-ball. The ball opened and a flash of red light materialized into a white humanoid Pokemon. The little Pokemo looked like a child, with two arms and a night gown that flowed over its body and separated onto two legs on the floor. The Pokemon had a green helmet that covered its eyes and two red 'horn' features that stuck out of its head.

"Ralts?" it said, cocking its head curiously. By using the Pokedex Oak gave him, the Ralts was a female. Oak left the room, leaving the Pokemon and human to bond as much as they could.

"H-hi there," Ash said, timidly backing off a bit. The Ralt's lifted its head, showing to ruby red eyes. The eyes narrowed and it stared at him.

"**I will not be bowing down to a pathetic human**," the Ralts hissed out, glaring at Ash. Ash stared at her with wide eyes.

"You can talk?" Ash asked, very surprised.

"**It is called telepathy, idiot**," the Pokemon said. She lifted up her hand, her eyes glowing and she lifted Ash in the air. Ash clenched his eyes shut, trying to take deep breaths, but failing. He was slowly getting dizzy, as the Pokemon blurred with the room in his eyes.

Ralts felt a spike of emotion coming off the human in front of her. Initially, she thought it was anger that was with the human, for attacking him, when he should be her master. Then, she focused on the emotion, and realized that it was a deep amount of fear. The human was _scared _of her. Realizing that she could use this to her advantage, by subduing the human by using his fear against him and running off, she continued her attack.

Another wave of fear came off the boy. But, this time, there was another emotion underlying in the fear. Was it, dare she say it, _respect_?

Ralts stopped her attack and her eyes widened in shock. Ash panted in front of her, breathing heavily. Ralts looked at the human in front of her, wondering what could have brought on such terror, yet a feeling of respect from within him. Her eyes glowed again, as she went through the boy's mind, searching through his memories. His memories was a jumbled mess that was clouded in fear.

The human screamed in agony as Ralts shifted through his mind forcefully. Ralts ignored the scream and found a memory buried deep in the boy's mind. She plowed through it like a battering ram, examining the memory. She noticed the carefree child that loved Pokemon playing and chasing after the Rattata. She also noticed the Spearow overhead.

But, she noticed the boy's pain the most. The physical pain inflicted by the Spearows' beaks, as well the mental pain of abandonment that the boy felt when he saw the Rattata saving itself and not even sparing a second glance. That pain made Ralts realize that this human was different from the rest. That pain made Ralts realize that she wanted this human, who experienced so much, to be her trainer.

Slowly, she drove out of the boy's mind. The pain receded, but left the boy a whimpering mess. Ralts walked up to him slowly, as the boy struggled to walk away from her. She lifted her arm and touched his forehead with her 'hand', causing the pain to completely fade away. She sent calming emotions to the boy, helping him stop whimpering and panting.

After a moment of helping him, Ash got up, noticing Ralts in front of him. He felt fear again, but the little Pokemon sent more calming emotions to him, causing him to relax. Ralts gently patted his knee and smiled a little at him, and Ash looked down at her, feeling completely relaxed with the Pokemon. Ralts held up her hands and Ash picked her up, still under the influence of her calming emotions.

"Hi there, I am Ash," Ash said, introducing himself.

"**I am Ralts, the Feeling Pokemon. I was abandoned by my trainer because he thought I only knew Growl, yet I inherited Psychic from my mother. My trainer did not use his Pokedex to know my moves and I refused to obey him because I saw what he was like. He would abuse his other Pokemon and then abandon them. I hope you do not do the same with me.**"

"I won't. Do you have a name?" Ash asked. The Ralts shook her head as no.

"I will call you Faye," Ash said, with a grin. The Ralts smiled at him, obviously liking her name. Then, together, the abused Pokemon and terrified human made their way into the world.

**AN: Here are questions that some may ask.**

**-Why Ralts? Ralts is a humanoid Psychic Pokemon. A humanoid Pokemon can help Ash get used to Pokemon faster and Ralts can read his mind and calm him down. She can sense his feelings. Ralts, as a Gardevoir, can sacrifice themselves for their human. She is also telepathic in this story, for translation purposes.**

**-Will Ash have Pikachu? Eventually.**

**-Legendaries? Maybe.**

**Anyways, yesterday was my birthday. I am 19!**


End file.
